Dorothea Solly’s Musical World

This case study explores the musical and social world of Dorothea Solly, a keen amateur musician and singer. It builds on Chapter 2 by arguing that Solly’s middle-class background, combined with a Broad Church Anglican milieu and her marriage into a Unitarian family shaped her strongly affirmative approach to female voices, in ways that contrasted sharply with the attitudes on display in conduct literature. In particular, she exhibited great admiration for, and sought to acquire herself, the advanced vocal technique of leading stars of the Italian opera, such as her singing teacher, Cecilia Davies. In her advocacy of both female professional performers and composers, and in her own style of singing, Solly and her social milieu encapsulate an important, emerging section of the British musical public that was open both to the idea of female musical creativity and professionalism, and comfortable with an empowered, confident, assertive style of envoicing femininity.

Epilogue

The book concludes with an account of Clara Novello’s performance at the opening of the Crystal Palace at its new site at Sydenham in June 1854. A major media event, the opening ceremony climaxed with Novello singing the national anthem to great acclaim both from the listening crowds and from the national press, who praised the power, technical skill, and emotionally expressive force of her rendition. This moment, when the voice of the British female artist seemed so central to the national consciousness, forms a point from which to review the book’s major themes. Ultimately it concludes that, although there were powerful forces at work seeking to constrict women’s voices, in this period and far beyond, Novello’s performance signals the emergence by mid-century of a new, more empowering way of voicing femininity that began, gradually, to contest the most fundamental assumptions of modern patriarchy.

The Lives and Voices of Professional Female Singers

This chapter explores the meaning of the professional female voice through the experiences of three singers from the 1830s and ’40s: Adelaide Kemble, Clara Novello, and Marianne Lincoln. It continues the argument of Chapters 2 and 3 by exploring how contemporary divisions over the sound of femininity affected the ways singers chose to use their voices. Their letters and diaries show how they were caught between a desire to develop their professional technique and artistry, and an equally strong anxiety that, in doing so, they might contravene feminine norms expected by important sections of the public and even by family and friends. These case studies thus expose the ongoing tensions between the ideals of the professional singer and of femininity in British musical life, but they also indicate that, through complex, sometimes agonising negotiation, it was increasingly possible for these women to develop successful careers as professional female musical artists.

Criticising Women’s Voices in the Musical Press

This chapter examines how professional female singers’ voices were described, and critically evaluated, in the music press. It focuses on comparing and contrasting critics’ responses to the voices of Catherine Stephens, Giuditta Pasta, and Eliza Vestris, three very different female singers. It demonstrates how concerns about class, religion, and nationality were instrumental in shaping critical commentary on these women’s voices. It argues that the sound of women’s voices was central to debates between partisans of opera and oratorio, and between advocates of “English” and “Italian” styles of music, methods of singing, and attitudes to gender. In particular, it explores the connections between the range of attitudes to women’s voices encountered in Chapters 1 and 2, and the contrasts in critics’ responses to these three singers’ voices, illustrating the ways in which social divisions over the nature of femininity shaped the development of the musical world.

Encountering Women’s Voices in Letters, Diaries, and Life-Writing

This chapter examines the extent to which the restrictive attitudes to women’s voices encountered in conduct literature are traceable in sources that give insight into the daily life of the British concert-going classes, such as letters, diaries, and life-writing. It confirms that similar attitudes to women’s voices can be found among those from evangelical, middle-class backgrounds. It also reveals, however, that a range of different, more affirmative attitudes to the use of women’s voices can be found both among members of the aristocracy, and among non-evangelical sections of the middle classes, whether Broad or High Church Anglicans, Roman Catholics, or rational dissenters and Unitarians. While some individuals were clear in their stance, this chapter also emphasises that ambiguous and conflicted attitudes were commonplace, particularly among those with mixed religious influences in their social milieu. Overall, this chapter highlights the profound divisions and diversity of attitudes towards female voices among contemporary audiences.

Instructing Women’s Voices in Conduct Literature

This chapter explores the guidance regarding the use of the female voice that was a common feature of conduct literature in circulation in Britain between 1780 and 1850. Such works place a heavy emphasis on the restraint of the female voice, seeing it as an aural sign of a young woman’s modesty, diffidence, and chastity. Concomitantly, they characterised the technique, power, and skill displayed by many contemporary female singers’ voices (especially, but not exclusively, the professional singers of Italian opera) as signs of moral corruption and/or the neglect of feminine domestic and religious duties. However, this chapter stresses that this conduct literature was primarily written for a middle-class, evangelical readership. Consequently, it represents a particular perspective on the female voice, one that was certainly gathering steam in these years, but which was by no means universally dominant.

Introduction

This introductory chapter sets out the key arguments, theoretical frameworks, and historiographical context of the book, and also presents summaries of each chapter. It reviews theoretical approaches to the concept of “voice” and explains this book’s stance towards exploring the cultural history of voices. It demonstrates how this focus on voice advances the gender history of this period, particularly in relation to moving beyond the longstanding debate over the “separate spheres” paradigm. It explains why this period is particularly important for the history of female voices, emphasising both the growth of middle-class audiences for music, and the impact of the evangelical revival on British culture. It concludes by offering some thoughts about the ways in which the present study draws upon and draws together recent developments in both history and musicology that have brought the two disciplines into closer alignment.